My very first designer meetup

On January 15th 2016 I attended my very first designer meetup hosted by Iconfinder and Brothers. Not knowing what to expect I took a 2.5 hour train ride towards Amsterdam.

Amsterdam and the flourishing designer community.

Upon arriving in Amsterdam, some designer friends and I mingled a bit, got some Starbucks, had a little snack and started walking to the Booking.com office (which was about a 2km walk).

We sat down in the lobby (because we were too early) and started noticing the large amount of Dribbblers walking into the building. We decided to walk up to the reception and we got early access (omg 👀).

After getting up to the 5th floor (which had an awesome view) we started having some snacks and drinks which ended up in some really neat conversations about our ideals and our thoughts behind design.

This made me realize that there are so many like-minded people in such a small country as The Netherlands and how flourishing the designer community is in such a small city as Amsterdam.

Listening to other designers speaking.

As it was my first time listening to renowned designers in real life, I was not sure what to expect. I have been watching speakers talk over online live streams and videos on YouTube and Vimeo which may have given me some type of expectations.

The speakers were honest and friendly but sadly did not tell me about anything I did not already know. Adding on top of that they had to use a microphone that did not seem to want to work. Needlessly to say, the talks were a bit of a let-down.

My thoughts on this Dribbble meetup.

All in all it was a great experience. Talking to other designers that came from all over the world was an eye-opening experience and it made me appreciate the design world even more than I already do. The talks were a bit “meh” but the people I met and the overall vibe that was around made up for that. With that said: I’m sure I’ll be going to more Dribbble meetups in the future.